Comments on: Remembering the Hippie Trail

By: Jean

Jean — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:56:24 +0000

Hi, Oh the memories come flooding back. Me and my man did the trail in 68 hitching from England to India, Ceylon and Nepal, out via southern Iran and Pakistan and back via Afghanistan. Spent 3 months living in the tourist police station in Colombo waiting for money which never arrived. Ended up in Calcutta robbed of our last £10, but the same day our money turned up – instant karma? Did a second trip in 69 and made it to Sydney where I worked for a year before heading back to uk again. Met wonderful people in Oz, Don (ex Chartered Accountant), Rob (he picked up malaria in Cairns)beautiful Angelica(Jelly)and Dick (diabetic), American lady Maggie, Paul, Jock, Jill, Don and Marilyn – a really wild couple – where are you all now? Les Poyner mentioned Thai Song Greet, great place to get work as a film extra. The Chinese owners cooked up fantastic food but my first experience of bed bugs. As Paul (#24) and others have said it’s hard to share your stories with people who don’t really understand and can be judgemental. I had the most amazing experiences of my life and hope to write that book someday so my children at least can get a clue what it was like.

By: Memi

Memi — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:06:34 +0000

Thank you all for taking me back. I travelled the hippy trail between 72 to 74 as a naive Canadian farm girl who fell in with a German drug smuggling gang living in Berlin while hitchhiking.

I had no previous drug experience of any kind and I selfishly used the troup to get as far away from my prosaic roots as I could possibly manage. My trip landed me in the mountains of Lebanon when Beirut was bombed by the Syrians. It took my through the Kabul gorge three times to buy hundreds of Kilos of the finest Afghani in Kandahar. I took me to Manali where we pressed it into the false bottoms of Samsonite suitcases destined for Australia. It took me to Goa where we swam naked in the ocean and were blissfully ignorant of the offense we offered to the very forgiving locals.

It seems I am not the only one who has written or is writing about that time. I invite anyone who wishes, to write to me through my email memivon@telusplanet.net

Thanks all for a fabulous trip through memory lane.

By: Les Poyner

Les Poyner — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:57:54 +0000

I travelled that road in 1966 through yenners in Istanbul and through the east of Turkey which was the wildest place Ive ever been. The Kabul Hotel I remember well with all the overland vehicles, many for sale! On through Peshawar another wild place with gun stalls in the markets and customers trying them out with live ammo. In katmandhu we ran into trouble with a guy named Rana who ran one of the hippy cafes, cant remember which cafe. My girlfriend got pneumonia and ended up in American hospital outside the city with a ward full of hepatitis casualties. Went on from India to Bangkok which was like toytown in those days, we even hitch hiked taxis! Anyone remember the Thai Song Gheet a chinese cafe cum flophouse, amazing place. Went on to Singapore across to an island called Tanjungpinang and through Indonesia to Portuguese Timor and Darwin. Did the return trip 2 years later. I wrote a book about it but didnt really try to get to get it published. Please contact me lespoyner@talktalk.net if you wanna chat

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:44:43 +0000

I have staid Fire Brigade Lane at Benerjee from 22 sept.1969 till 7 oct. 1969. It was 5 roupies the bed. While regastring I had to promise “not to smoke”. There I met two American boys named James and Gary Gary plaid flute. After some days I staid with them in the habitation they in the yard. I slept in a bed outside. After, I went to Hardward and Rishikesh (staying at Shivananda ashram. I visited Maharashi Mahesh Yogi.
I staid again in Delhi with a Lady I met at Shivananda. She brought me to visit Ananda Mayi at Mathura where I spend a fasting week very “tipical”.I traveled to Rajasthan and to Jim Corbett Park. I went back to France on 15 february 1970.

By: hannah

hannah — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:03:11 +0000

It is really fascinating to hear about all of your experiences on the hippie trail! I am currently researching the hippie legacy: from Ginsberg’s agori fascination and Timothy Leary’s psychedelic manuals inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead to Dev Anand’s Hare Rama Hare Krishna and the Hunryalists’ new aesthetic, my paper will trace the frontiers explored by those on and off the bus.

I spent a year in Varanasi myself and am fluent in Hindi. I now am really interested in the confluence of “western” and South Asian culture in the 60s and 70s; to what extent did the hippie trail generate a cultural exchange between locals and hippies? I am also generally interested in how the “hippie mentality” (if such a thing exists!) has continued to shape the image of India in the “West”. I am particularly hoping to find anyone who was in the film Hare Rama Hare Krishna, but am also genuinely interested in anyone’s stories that might be relevant to this topic. Please continue to post your experiences or email me (hanshanbanana@hotmail.com).

By: anna

anna — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:38:10 +0000

bunny Yes I stayed at fire brigade lane in 1969. My partner and I had just arrived in Delhi by
train to discover our bags had been pilfered so looking for a cheap hotel we were taken to
a private house run by a scotch drinking indian lady
by the name of Mrs Bannerje. She was quite a character sitting at a table in the driveway where
you had to pass but not before relating your days activities to her with her helpful advice as
where not to go as so and so sells hashish another buys passports another changes money on the
black market etc. Mrs Bannerjee did not charge travellers money to stay I think she either
enjoyed a procession of young people through her house or else she was on a commission from the
people she told us not to go to. I also remember her mother in law sniffing around the rooms
in case anyone was smoking ganga.
Mrs Bannerjee helped me out as being rather young and trustful I fell foul to a scam where I
parted with my travellers cheques and she advised me how to report the ‘loss’.
Years later I revisited India and took her a bottle of Johnny Walker however her daughter told
me she no longher drank as she had alzhiemers. Still I have fond memories of Mrs Bannerjee she
was like no other lady I met in India.

By: Yves Potvin

Yves Potvin — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:41:37 +0000

Does anyone remember that in Istanbul, there was a book at Yener’s (Or Gulhane) in which travellers wrote their comments and remarks? I wrote mine in the Fall of 1971. What happened to the book? Are there any copies that were later made as souvenirs. Also looking for a Canadian girl named Bev met at Istanbul in 1971 and seen again at Herat, Afghanistan.

Yves

By: abeattie23

abeattie23 — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:42:04 +0000

it has taken me longer to find this page than it did to travel bu ‘Budget Bus’ from Tottenham Court Road in London to Delhi in Nov 73.

Anyone else on that journey.

By: Valerie Hawkins

Valerie Hawkins — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:41:11 +0000

I did the overland trip to India with “New Frontier” in 1968. Travelled with a group of 10 in a Ford Transit. I was a very naive untravelled English girl. The trip changed my life. The group broke up in Delhi, but not wanting to go home, I wired home for money and continued on to Perth, then Dampier, Roebourne – it was the most exciting moment of my life, flying into Perth late at night, not knowing a soul. I felt immediately that Oz was the place I should be. I quickly fell in with an Aussie bloke, had two children and never went home apart from holidays. I now live in Melbourne and am trying to find any of the fellow travellers from that trip. Unfortunately I only have first names, except for the driver, Dan Smith. So Gil, Bill Betty,Sonny, anyone – would love to hear from you.

By: paul

paul — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:50:21 +0000

Yes,i was told by saddhu up by Kulu i had been in India in a previous life and i was born in England for a reason, can’t say it is very obvious why though. Sorry, can’t help with Patsy, good luck on the rest of the road. P.